It is now a little over 24/25 hours since the clocks went back as part of our biannual jumping of the time zones and so I feel it's a perfect time to sit and muse on the changing of the time and how greatly it all seems to affect us. More to the point, it should be noted that we are all complete idiots for being led to believe that an hour's time difference makes any difference to us in the first place.

If you are anything like me (ie you are under 40 and are not tied down to a regular job) then you will be very aware at this hour in the day that your sleep patterns are, shall we say, a little irregular? Indeed, my own sleeping times vary from night to night by at least a couple of hours, as do my times for getting up. It perhaps says it all that I was very much awake when the clock struck two and moments later struck one again. Why therefore do we put so much stock in the idea of getting an extra hour in bed at this time of year? Arguably I lost an hour's sleep anyway by staying up longer than I would otherwise have done, just to see in the new time zone.

Despite this, I woke this morning with an inexplicable feeling of happiness and refreshment, even though I received as little or less sleep than any other night of the year. The same can be said to be true of a great deal of people, as even the bloke on the radio was more cheerful than usual and kept commenting on how much better he felt for the shift in the clocks. In many ways it was an ordinary Sunday, but to hear the way people went on about it and to see the smiles on their faces, you'd think it was Christmas or something.

The other somewhat laughable aspect of the whole affair is that after everyone had had their 'extra hour in bed? they found themselves with an extra hour during the day as well. I myself discovered that I'd been blessed with several hours more today than on the average Sunday, even though I'd lazed in bed until well after 10. It seemed that for most of the day there was nothing I couldn't do. I managed to visit the shops, get all my laundry done, wash the car, touch up the bumpers, spend hours browsing the internet looking for old school friends and cook myself a good old fashioned Sunday roast for my dinner. On top of all that I was even able to squeeze in three loads of washing up, a hour of television and a DVD to boot! I'm half surprised I've not taken my extra hour(s) to research and plan my career for the next 40 years while I'm at it.

I think this is all a very good example of the power of the mind. The reason why myself and probably most of the rest of the country got so many household things done today is not that we had a 25 hour day instead of a 24 hour one. It is nothing to do with that at all. The real reason is that we knew we had that surplus time and so endeavoured to use it as wisely as we could. If only we had a little more control over our minds than we actually do, perhaps we could harness the power of the Return to GMT Good Mood Sunday to allow us to be far more productive on other days of the week.

The combined facts of the clocks going back and it being a Sunday conspired to leave us all with a deep feeling of satisfaction that ultimately made us happier in our work and able to do more of it as a result. I guess really the key to getting things done that you have to do is to stay happy and positive, because when you do that, you can own the world!